


Surface

by sophinisba



Series: Some things Freya did before she met Merlin [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Community: kink_bingo, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Parent Death, Poetry, Sestina, Tragedy: Death of a Brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-22
Updated: 2014-02-22
Packaged: 2018-01-13 10:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1223647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophinisba/pseuds/sophinisba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sestina about Freya at the time of her family's deaths.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Surface

**Author's Note:**

> My first sestina! For the "mirrors/doubles" square on my 2013 kink_bingo card. Written in August 2013 and intended as part of a solo kink bingo that may or may not get finished someday.

At dawn the water’s surface holds the light  
Like holding breath, a valley cool and still  
The day all new, unknown, about to break  
As young and brittle as the little girl  
Who stands there watching for an hour or two  
In hopes this day will let her be alone

She hasn’t always met the days alone  
Her mother taught her how to greet the light  
To love a little brother, and then two  
To know she was the favoured daughter still  
To love the world, like any druid girl  
But no one warned her that a world could break

A world, a word, a promise, they all break  
So death taught her to love herself alone  
A stumbling, skinny, ugly orphan girl  
Who doesn’t trust the water, air or light  
But waits at lakeshore every morning still  
To see the sun turn one life into two

What happens when a child is torn in two?  
What does it mean to make a body break?  
She watches when the waters settle still  
And show her young face peering back alone  
She shouldn’t look so clean and pale and light  
She shouldn’t look like any other girl

She likes to smash the image of that girl  
Not just to break a single face in two  
But throw a rock to shatter all the light  
They broke her heart, so let her picture break  
The water should reflect that she’s alone  
And in a thousand pieces even still

The neighbors bring her food and watch her still  
They’d never leave to waste a druid girl  
She’s told them she’d be better off alone  
But someone visits every day or two  
They’re waiting for her quiet rage to break  
But let them wait, oh, let _them_ love the light

But leave this still dark grief a year or two  
Don’t force the girl to bend, but let her break  
Alone she might yet crash back into light


End file.
